The Willis Polk collection documents Polk’s architectural career, his professional involvement and his interest in the civic improvement of San Francisco. Architectural drawings from 1890-1924 form the bulk of the collection, as well as additional manuscript records. The collection is arranged into four series: Professional Papers, Office Records, Art and Artifacts, and Additional Donations.

Series I: Professional Papers spans the years of 1890-1937 and contains correspondence, professional writings, news clippings, scrapbooks, and photographs. This includes writings from the Architectural News, the Arts and Crafts Guild of San Francisco, the controversy surrounding the construction of the Hobart Building, and the effort to preserve the Palace of Fine Arts. Photographs include portraits of Polk, and a group photograph of him and his colleagues. This series also contains records created or collected by Polk’s widow, Christina Barreda Polk.

Series II: Office Records spans a short range of years from 1893-1897 and consists of financial ledgers and published records and photographs from completed projects, as well as photographs and lithographs of built and unbuilt projects.

Series III: Project Records contains correspondence, drawings, and photographs related to Polk’s projects from 1890-1924. The bulk of this series consists of architectural drawings. Correspondence and other written documentation exists only for three projects: The Spring Valley Water Company Mason Street Building, The Women’s City Club of San Francisco, and an uncompleted San Francisco War Memorial. Photographs are of finished projects as well as drawings, models, the original Willis Polk table with terra cotta supports, and Linderhof Palace.

Series IV: Arts and Artifacts is comprised of Polk’s office furniture as well as sculptures, etchings, sketches, and paintings created or collected by Polk spanning the years of circa 1890-1924. This includes art created by Willis Polk: a drawing of a window at Mission San Jose in San Antonio, a sketch of Mabel Street in San Francisco, a watercolor of the Keith residence and Swedenborgian Church, and an oil painting of the San Francisco Skyline. Also includes a landscape painting and a portrait of Polk by William Keith.

While the majority of the collection was donated in 1934 by Polk’s widow in conjunction with the Friends of Willis Polk, Series V: Additional Documents is comprised of separately donated materials. These materials range from circa 1890-1951 and includes manuscripts, drawings, and photographs. Drawings in this series includes: William Bourn, Jr. residence, San Francisco; Mrs. William Bourn residence, St. Helena; Charles Webb Howard residence, Oakland; Examiner Building, San Francisco; proposed casino for the Hotel Arcadia, Santa Monica; Admission Day Monument; and proposed Administration Building, California Midwinter International Exposition. Also includes photographs, drawings, and documents relating to the Ralston White “Garden of Allah” residence and microfiche reproductions of the plans for the Charles Templeton Crocker Residence. Collection also includes material related to the Polk family including photographs of W.A. Polk, Daisy Polk, Willis J. Polk; correspondence to, from, and about Daisy Polk; photographs of drawings and buildings (by Frances Benjamin Johnston) and 2 issues of Architectural News (1890, 1891).